1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for distributing configuration settings for electronic devices and in particular to distribution of configuration settings for medical devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical devices are becoming increasingly complex and the possibilities for configuring the medical devices to perform their various functions are likewise becoming increasingly more complex. For example, the medical devices may have signal recording settings and the imaging settings, for example, that may be configured. This allows for the maximum adaptability of the medical devices to the needs of the physicians, radiologists, etc. The needs of the individual medical professional and the experience of the medical professional influence the configuration settings of the medical device that are applied. This results in a large variety of configurations of the medical devices as used by different physicians and users of the medical devices.
Clinical trials rely on standardized data acquisition in order to achieve comparable results. In the case of medical trials which are conducted at various locations, also referred to as multi-centric trials, these various sites often have different medical devices. The quality of the clinical trial relies on the data acquisition process being the same, and the configuration of the medical device that obtains the data plays a substantial role in ensuring that the data is comparable.
Up to now, clinical trials have generally been conducted at more than one site and the data acquired using the medical devices is very likely to have been acquired from the medical devices which are configured differently from one another. The medical devices might be from the same vendor or from different vendors. Representatives of the various sites for the clinical trial, which typically may include investigators and/or users of the medical devices such radiologists or the like, generally get together and discuss the data required for the clinical trial. These representatives must translate these data requirements into configurations that are specific to the medical devices at the sites. This results in differences in the configurations. In order for the data from the medical devices to be comparable, reliance must be made on the experience and judgment of the users of the medical devices.